Mick Hartley

From the Daily NK:

The US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has confirmed in an unclassified report that Russia used North Korean-made ballistic missiles in its war against Ukraine. In its analysis published at the end of May, the DIA discovered striking similarities between images of missile debris found in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv after the Jan. 2, 2024 attack and photos of short-range solid-fuel ballistic missiles (SRBMs) in North Korean state media showing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visiting a missile factory last August.

And the Korea Herald:

South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said Saturday growing evidence pointed to Russia getting weapons from North Korea to attack Ukraine and aiding the Kim Jong-un regime’s military program.

“Today we see more evidence that the weapons used by Russia to attack Ukraine were illegally imported from North Korea,” the South Korean minister of national defense said in his remarks delivered at the plenary session of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

Russia, despite being a permanent member of the United Nations Council, was “receiving weapons from a regime that violates numerous UNSC resolutions they themselves have led,” he said.

He said that the military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, brought on by the war in Ukraine, was “not only escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula by advancing the nuclear and missile capabilities of North Korea, but also affecting the battlefield in Europe.”

“This means that the crisis on the Korean Peninsula is no longer a problem limited to the Korean Peninsula, but rather a problem for all of us,” he said.

He said that North Korea, in return for providing Russia with weapons, was getting money and technology to expand its military power.

“North Korea’s reckless development of (a) nuclear and missile program which can strike all countries represented here poses an existential threat for us.”